During the presentations Dr. Bhargava discussed eight commonly encountered governance problems in public education such as informal payments (bribes), teacher absenteeism and budget leakages. He argued that an engaged and informed citizenry can remedy these issues and presented five possible entry points for community engagement:

Consultations on policies and programs

Grievance redress mechanisms

Performance monitoring and evaluation

Participatory decision making

Increasing transparency

To demonstrate the success of community engagement, he highlighted the work of PTF supported partners who mobilized students and parents to monitor school textbook procurement and distribution processes in the Philippines; introduced a transparent system to monitor the collection and use of school fees in Armenia; and strengthened parent associations and school management committees to monitor teacher absenteeism and misuse of school funds in Ghana. Workshop participants shared their own successful experiences from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Cambodia, Tanzania and Malawi.